Rebels fighting government forces in Ukraine said they are ready to discuss peace terms with the Ukrainian administration in Kiev after taking more territory and surrounding a key railway town.
Artillery shells rained down on the eastern city of Debaltseve, where rebels said they had surrounded government positions in an assault that Ukraine and its allies in the US and the EU say is backed by Russia. Negotiators for the self-proclaimed rebel entities in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions called for a demarcation line negotiated last year in a Sept. 5 truce in Minsk, Belarus, to be moved to reflect their advance.
“The Donetsk People’s Republic is ready for a ceasefire, but it should be mutual,” Donetsk rebel representatives Denis Pushilin and Vladyslav Deinego said in a statement on the separatist-run DAN news service.
The escalation in fighting has also prompted leaders to push for a new round of truce talks in Minsk between Ukraine, Russia, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the rebels.
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the OSCE have agreed on a document for discussion in Minsk and were ready to take part in talks yesterday, the OSCE said in a statement on its Web site late on Friday.
Separatist leaders were willing to join the Minsk talks, RIA Novosti reported yesterday, citing Deinego, head negotiator for the Luhansk rebels.
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
AERIAL INCURSIONS: The incidents are a reminder that Russia’s aggressive actions go beyond Ukraine’s borders, Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha said Two NATO members on Sunday said that Russian drones violated their airspace, as one reportedly flew into Romania during nighttime attacks on neighboring Ukraine, while another crashed in eastern Latvia the previous day. A drone entered Romanian territory early on Sunday as Moscow struck “civilian targets and port infrastructure” across the Danube in Ukraine, the Romanian Ministry of National Defense said. It added that Bucharest had deployed F-16 warplanes to monitor its airspace and issued text alerts to residents of two eastern regions. It also said investigations were underway of a potential “impact zone” in an uninhabited area along the Romanian-Ukrainian border. There
The governor of Ohio is to send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine on Tuesday said that he does not oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which about 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help affected communities. On Monday, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost directed his office to research legal avenues — including filing a lawsuit — to stop the federal government from sending
A Zurich city councilor has apologized and reportedly sought police protection against threats after she fired a sport pistol at an auction poster of a 14th-century Madonna and child painting, and posted images of their bullet-ridden faces on social media. Green-Liberal party official Sanija Ameti, 32, put the images on Instagram over the weekend before quickly pulling them down. She later wrote on social media that she had been practicing shots from about 10m and only found the poster as “big enough” for a suitable target. “I apologize to the people who were hurt by my post. I deleted it immediately when I
RSS